Asuna Elmarit
is the main protagonist of the manga series Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel. Asuna is a pilot at the Earth Federation École du Ciel Training Institute. Personality & Character Asuna Elmarit is sometimes uncertain, but determined and true to her beliefs. She enjoys drawing more than anything else in the world and is a talented artist, despite that she is unfortunately poorly acknowledged for this and has the bad habit of tossing her flimsy sketchbook at people who make her angry. She is an inclusive person and tends to disgust her comrades, most especially Erisia Nocton with her continual choice of having both sea urchin and salmon roe iced cream. She likes the feeling of freedom granted by space and sees it as her home. She hates panoramic monitors in atmosphere as she feels that they are distracting and cluttered. She tends to cling to things that are important to her and has a hard time moving on. While rare Asuna can be naughty at times too. She dressed rather questionably when she was disguising herself and she made erotic noises in an attempt to distract one of her captors, though that didn't work. The staff on an enigmatic committee behind the École schools ranked her Newtype rating as an A+. History Early life Asuna Elmarit was the product of Haruka Elmarit and Yahagi Franziback's relationship, however by the time she was born in or around UC 0071 Haruka had left Yahagi and was married to Zeon Professor Elmarit. Professor Elmarit must have had some idea of her genese as he was expecting her to be a Newtype and expressed his disappointment in her at the time of her birth. Asuna was born in Side 3 and as such was raised as a citizen of the Principality of Zeon. It is not clear at what point it occurred, however at some point early in Asuna's life she was enrolled in the Zeon National Defense Academy. Here she was forced to undergo a repetitive exercise involving locking on to targets repeatedly as they appeared on screen in a simulator. The purpose of this was to develop her Newtype potential. Professor Elmarit was dissatisfied with her performance and regularly broke into her simulator interrupting the training and the staff and berated her for performing under her potential. École du Ciel While it is unclear what happened in her life between UC 0080 and UC 0085 at some point after the war Professor Elmarit fled as a war criminal and the Earth Federation began providing for the living expenses of Haruka and Asuna. And so, in UC 0085 Asuna enrolled at the École du Ciel academy in Montreal, Canada. Initially Asuna was teased, tormented and rejected by the students at École du Ciel because of her nature as a Spacenoid and a Zeon citizen. The ringleader of this harassment was a girl by the name of Emilu Voigtlander, someone whose parents were killed by Zeon. While the two were at arms initially they came to realize that they had much in common and became friends. Asuna also met and developed feelings for classmate Shinn Barnack and met Yahagi Franziback as an instructor there (though she did not realize that he was in fact her father). When she first entered École du Ciel Asuna was not motivated to be there and didn't want to be an MS pilot, instead she was aiming for a logistical support role, however after being shamefully defeated by her classmate Erisia Nocton and publicly denounced as being the only one to not advance to the next level of training in front of her entire student class, she resolved to train harder and become an MS pilot. She trained together with Emilu and was allowed to advance to the next stage of training. She become much more successful in subsequent trials, however she had a harder time piloting Federation MS and tends to prefer the Zeon Zaku II, one of her largest complaints is against the "overwhelming" panoramic monitors. Erisia begins to develop an interest in Asuna after their first simulated battle as she was shocked by Asuna's ability to instantly lock on to her MS. After a hair-raising exercise in which paintballs were "accidentally" replaced with live rounds, she and Erisia begin clandestine simulations to win the battle. Erisia sees her as a bit of a rival, but somewhat of a friend. When the École students begin trials in space Asuna excels well beyond the other students, no longer bothered by the panoramic monitors. She begins to consistently outdo even Erisa in obstacle course runs and races in MS. One of the other instructors, Forma Gardner, explains that this is because her reaction times are in the negatives - not how long it was after she saw the obstacles that she reacted, but how long before they appeared that her reactions began. During their space trainings Asuna is allowed to return to Side 3 to visit her mother. She does so, but the two soon get into an argument about Professor Elmarit and Asuna runs away. Rejoining with her friends she sneaks into the now ruined Zeon National Defense Academy. Here she encounters an old friend from her Zeon academy days by the name of Akira. He speaks briefly and enigmatically and Asuna and Co hurriedly depart. The same night Asuna wanders around the training ship looking for something to draw along with Shinn. The two accidentally lock themselves in a solitary confinement cell with one another. Asuna's training ship responds to a distress call, only to be ambushed by Marie Albertia's pirates. Shinn is placed in danger and Asuna sorties without permission to help him. She is nearly killed in battle, however Yahagi saves her. Asuna is stunned by the realities of war and the death of Instructor Linny. She meets Shinn in the medical bay as he is recovering from injuries and the two admit to having feelings for one another. Marie's pirates strike again against the Salamis fleet escorting the École training vessel. Asuna sorties, but is paralyzed by the screams and panicked voices she hears in her head as she awakens to her Newtype potential. Shinn is killed in the battle. Stunned Asuna leaves in her GM Trainer and eventually encounters Marie's pirates. Marie Albertia's Pirates In March UC 0086, after leaving École du Ciel, Asuna encounters Marie Albertia's pirates and is captured. After a brief interrogation and one escape attempt, she begins to slowly become accepted as a member of their crew. She is assigned cleaning duties as well as being an MS pilot and usually pilots a Zaku II. She infuriates her fellows by refusing to kill her opponents instead disabling their mobile suits, oftentimes to the pirates detriment. Asuna captures a Federation pilot who later deceives her and escapes, taking her hostage in the process. Asuna pursues her however and disables her MS, this time she is kept confined until the pirates hand her over to the AEUG. Asuna goes to an Island Type Colony along with her new friends Juna and Rolf Berger. Asuna is disguised, but her cover is blown when she attempts to buy a gift for Juna using her cash card. The two are captured, Rolf attempts to save them, but ends up captured as well instead. The trio break free when on a Launch in transit and escape into a nearby colony, however they are pursued by MS. The trio then perform a complicated escape with the help of Akira. Asuna fields against three Hizacks in a Zaku II and manages to down one of them before she is forced to surrender. Eventually they all escape the colony. Upon returning to the pirates Asuna feels misgivings over placing them in danger, however Marie gives her an over the top display of gratitude for being there. Akira is injured when new parts for his Kämpfer arrive. Asuna attempts to help by making him food. It does not end well as her idea of cooking has very odd sensibilities. Asuna loses the mangled portrait she drew of Shinn in a ship fire and is forced to finally let go of him forever. In the months that follow the Gryps Conflict begins and the pirates begin to work more closely with the AEUG. They go to the moon to assist in the testing of a captured Gundam Mk II. Asuna pilots it, however this angers the test pilots of the base so she engages in a battle against Jack Bayard. During the battle the test program fails and the beam output on the pilots weapons is increased to combat levels Francis jumps in to prevent a blow from Jack's beam rifle. The battle ends and Jack admits his respect for Asuna. The pirates then learn that Haruka has been captured by the Titans and is being ransomed in exchange for Asuna. The pirates agree to a prisoner exchange wherein Asuna pilots a Hi-Zack. They exchange is a success and the dummy the pirates used in place of Asuna works, however it is revealed that the main objective was to trap and eliminate the pirates. A desperate battle occurs in which most of the pirates Pazock is lost and only one of the two major Pazock segments survives, however only moments after an Axis fleet composed of Musai-class light cruisers appears and launches an attack on the pirates Pazock. In the face of overwhelming military force, Marie is mortally wounded and passes away in the cockpit of her Gelgoog. Asuna, who witnesses the deaths of her friends Francis, Rolf Berger and the complete destruction of the Pazock along with the rest of Marie Albertia's Pirates, manifests her Newtype powers in warped fashion and destroys several Titans mobile suits in her GM Canard. After these events, Asuna, along with Juna, who escaped the Pazock's destruction aboard a shuttle, joins the AEUG to fight in the Gryps Conflict. AEUG On U.C. 0087.11.16, seven months after the destruction of Marie's Pirates, Asuna, who is now with the AEUG, serves aboard the Irish-class battleship Zwickbau in space alongside Lt. Jack Bayard as leader of the Easter MS squad in her custom-painted RMS-099 Rick Dias. At the same point in time that Char Aznable delivers his famous Dakar Address at Senegal on Earth, Asuna receives mission orders to sortie in order to destroy a Titans communications satellite, and launches with Jack's Halloween squad. Asuna and the Easter squad make their way to the battle zone where AEUG units were suffering heavy losses against an MS force from the Titans Alexandria-class Al-Qasr captained by "Committee" member Forma Gardner. Asuna and Jack are suddenly come under fire from an unidentified unit which proves too agile for even Asuna to track. Asuna deploys several inflatable dummies, but the move proves futile as her Easter squad is decimated by the unknown unit. In an act of desperation, Asuna fires off several beam rifle shots which manage to hit a piece of space debris, causing it to explode and send fragments flying in every direction and momentarily stunning the enemy MS. Asuna immediately takes cover behind space debris as the enemy MS, now revealed to be the Titans' new ORX-005 Gaplant, fires wildly on the decoy dummies. Asuna readies her beam saber and ambushes the Gaplant from behind to land a killing blow, when the enemy pilot suddenly uses the back of the Gaplant's right shield binder to strike Asuna's Rick Dias' arm and knock her saber away. The pilot of the Gaplant manages to counter Asuna's move and restrain both the Dias' arms, with the Gaplant's beam cannons pointed squarely at the Dias' head. As the enemy MS pilot angrily berates Asuna (via contact link) for her gallantry, Asuna identifies the pilot's voice to be that of none other than her former classmate's, Erisia Nocton, while Erisia herself acknowledges Asuna's Newtype presence. Erisia fires her beam cannons, but Asuna, in a death-defying act, evades the shots by flipping her Dias over the Gaplant and freeing her from Erisia's clutches, however, tearing both the Dias' arms off in the process. With her armless Dias, Asuna continues to face Erisia, and deploys the Dias' head vulcan guns to barrage the Gaplant with a concentrated volley of fire, however, Erisia uses the Gaplant's speed to its advantage and fires on Asuna. Asuna is caught off guard and Erisia closes in, using the Gaplant's hand to crush the Dias' head and declares the act as "Payback for back then", but does not finish-off Asuna. The Gaplant is suddenly hit by supporting fire from Jack who also fires a signal flare, and Erisia withdraws while Jack recovers Asuna and her Dias and returns to the Zwickbau, which withdraws as well. Gallery Asuna Concept Art.jpg| Original Haruhiko Mikimoto concept art for Asuna Elmarit. Edc-asuna-pilotsuit.jpg|Asuna Elmarit (Ecole du Ciel academy pilot suit) - Art by Haruhiko Mikimoto Linda Franke Heidecke Drp Rollei.jpg|Asuna Elmarit with a fake ID going by the alias Linda Franke Heidecke Drp Rollei. This was after she bought more conservative clothes. Asuna-aeug.jpg|Asuna Elmarit (AEUG uniform) - Art by Haruhiko Mikimoto Asuna Figure Concept.jpg|Concept art for a limited edition Asuna Elmarit figure that was included with the Japanese release of Volume 5. It depicts Asuna as she appears cleaning the pirate ship.